Adoption Board concerned about grant cuts proposed by the Funding Centre for Social Welfare and Health Organisations (STEA)

The Adoption Board is concerned about the cuts to grants for adoption services proposed by the Funding Centre for Social Welfare and Health Organisations (STEA). STEA is planning to make cuts in 2025 to funding for preventive services that improve and support the capability of adoptive parents for parenting children adopted for child welfare reasons.

According to the Adoption Board in plenary session, these decisions are short-sighted, as they will increase the need for support in other public services. The Adoption Board calls for budget cuts in adoption services to be predictable and accompanied by controlled adaptation measures so as not to create voids in the service offering. The current services in the field have been carefully designed to be mutually supportive. Disabling individual services will leave problematic gaps that are difficult to cover in existing services without adaptation measures and additional funding for that purpose.

"The cuts proposed by STEA would lead to the discontinuing of adoption curator services and adoption coaching. Both are services that cannot be replaced in the service system, and their absence will immediately take away from the preparation of families prior to adoption, besides removing a low-threshold service from the service offering", according to Irene Pärssinen-Hentula, Chair of the Adoption Board.

Any changes to services concerning adopted children and their families should be devised with particular care, because adopted children have a child welfare background, and as with other children with a similar background, their families need particular support. Low-threshold preventive services are particularly important for such families, and cutting such services may lead to the problems of children and families not being identified soon enough. The findings of the school health survey soon to be published by the National Institute for Health and Welfare also show that significant challenges and needs for support have been identified among adolescents adopted to Finland. 

Read more

STEA announcement of grants to be awarded in 2025 (in Finnish)

Further information

Irene Pärssinen-Hentula, Manager, Chair of the Adoption Board, tel. +358 (0)295 209247